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Confessions of a News Junkie - Part 2 癮君子的自白-下卷

Lifestyle magazines often feature a section where celebrities make a list of the ten things they can’t live without. Brad Pitt goes everywhere with his Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses and Sofia Coppola her Louis Vuitton luggage. I yawn with indifference every time I come across such silliness, but only seconds later find myself mentally going down my own list: my 24-inch iMac, Octopus card, extra virgin olive oil, and of course, the daily delivery of The New York Times.

The Times is hands down my favorite news source. Averaging only 18 pages, the newspaper can be read cover-to-cover in a single sitting. From politics and business to travels and arts and entertainment, “all the news that’s fit to print” is packed into a single fold. The paper’s editorials and op-eds, written with old-fashioned gumption, always pack a punch. Daily crossword puzzles edited by word wizard Will Shortz get progressively difficult as the week matures and provide a workout for the brain that at once entertains and humbles. Award-winning columnists like Maureen Dowd and Roger Cohen and sections with such enticing titles as “International Life” delight as much as they inspire. Whether it is an article about the Singapore government’s attempt to boost its citizens’ sex drive or a vignette on China’s emerging middle class buying their first motor cars, the writing is superb and the research ironclad.

A typical magazine cover in Hong Kong

On the other end of the spectrum are the local news media in Hong Kong...
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Read the rest of this essay in HONG KONG State of Mind, available at major bookstores in Hong Kong and at Blacksmith Books.

HONG KONG State of Mind

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